The Mystery in Arizona

at golf, but I could teach you enough so we could spend a pleasant hour on the course whenever you like.”
    “Honey is a marvelous swimmer,” Trixie put in. “She’d be glad to give you some lessons. And you really should join the morning riding class, Miss Brown. You’ll have fun and learn quickly.”
    “You’re very kind,” Miss Brown said, smiling. “I realize now what my trouble was. I thought that in a place like this I’d have a good time simply because I wasn’t working. Now I realize that you have to work at having a good time just as you do anything else.”
    “That’s the spirit,” said Mr. Wellington. “We’ll start out by having a good time this evening. The young folks who are going along to La Posada with us will see to that.”
    Trixie left them and hurried back to her room. Honey, Brian, and Jim were there waiting for her.
    “Oh, don’t scold her,” Honey began, but Brian interrupted sternly.
    “Your theme consists of one short sentence in which two words are misspelled.”
    “You got the wrong answers,” Jim added, “to every one of your problems. Your mistakes were in simple addition and subtraction, which certainly proves that you weren’t exactly concentrating.” Trixie felt cold in her damp bathing suit, but her cheeks were hot. “I did so concentrate,” she said.
    Brian raised his dark eyebrows. “In the pool?”
    “Oh, leave her alone,” Honey cried out. “Can’t you see she’s shivering? After she gets dressed, I’ll show her the mistakes she made in her math, and then she can work on her theme until it’s time for us to leave for town.”
    “Okay.” The boys left, and Trixie quickly brought Honey up to date on events.
    “You’ve got to do something about Mrs. Sherman,” she finished. “Don’t bother about those silly old problems. I’ll find my own mistakes. But, for Uncle Monty’s sake, we can’t let Mrs. Sherman leave. You’re the tactful one of the gang. Go and talk her into staying.”
    Honey shook her head. “She doesn’t like me. You heard her say that I made her feel uncomfortable. When I was tidying her room this morning, I was pretty sure that she knew I was trying hard not to laugh at her. But I couldn’t help it, Trixie. She’s so silly. Why don’t we just let her go? Nobody likes her.”
    “Well, go and talk to Di about it, anyway. Maybe she’s got some ideas.” Trixie sighed and sat down at the small desk. She longed to tell Honey that she suspected that the cowboy, Tenny, was a phony and why. But there wasn’t time for that now. If she wanted to go to the festival that evening she had better buckle down and work—and forget everything else on her mind.

Cowboys and Questions • 13

    TRIXIE FINISHED correcting her problems and was on the second page of her theme when Maria tapped on her door and came in. “Fresh blouses for tomorrow,” she said and hung them in the closet. “Fortunately, my sisters-in-law washed and ironed everything like that before they left.”
    “Why did they leave, Maria?” Trixie blurted. “They were happy here, weren’t they?”
    “Oh, very happy,” she replied. “So much so that they did not want to go. But they had to go.”
    Trixie frowned. “I don’t understand why they didn’t give Mr. Wilson notice ahead of time, so he could have hired someone else to take their place.” Maria thought for a minute. “This much I guess I can tell you. They did not plan to go until the last minute, and then they were afraid. One year they did not go, and that was the year in which my husband died.”
    “Oh.” Trixie stared at her in surprise. “But you’re not afraid?”
    “I am not an Orlando,” Maria replied, “except by marriage.”
    “But Petey is an Orlando,” Trixie pointed out.
    “It is true,” Maria said, after a moment of silence. “And it is also true that I am afraid. But I am more afraid of losing my job. Here I have such a nice home for Petey. The patron has arranged it so that he is driven to and from school every day. He is allowed to wade in the pool and to ride on a pony. And, as for me, the work is pleasant and the pay is good. I have only a few small expenses, so someday my savings will amount to a great deal—enough so that Petey can go to college.”
    She started for the door and added softly, as though she were thinking out loud, “But still I am afraid—very afraid. If something happened to Petey, I would never forgive myself.” She was gone before Trixie